A little history, and the first ride

Back when my job was The Suck, I lived in Fremont. The decision to move there was driven by the fact that I worked in Newark. When I started, I was commuting up from San Jose, but after losing 1.5 to 2 hrs a day in traffic, all I was doing was eating, driving, working and sleeping. Thus, the move. After I quit and started consulting, I was getting work back down in Santa Clara. I kept my place up there for a year, until November 2009, when I decided that if I want to continue my phony-baloney bullshit lifestyle, I need to cut costs. Started looking for rooms to rent, when I found that two friends that I work with were looking for a roommate…we sort of found each other.

Now, I live in Santa Clara. My old commute of 40 miles round trip has been cut down to less than 6.5 miles. Since Mid December, I’ve been biking to work. I figured out that I can jack up the pressure on the mountain bike tires, and do fairly decently on the streets. When I used to bitch about riding, now I like it – goes to show how mental state can affect activity.

So, now I have the new old bike. It’s shiny. It’s green. It’s retro. Retro to the point that, unlike modern bikes, it does not have index shifting. It actually has friction shifting that requires the operator to have a vague sense of what he’s doing. So I ride in, and without trying, notice that my commute was a few minutes faster. Showed the bike off with ooohs and ahhhs from my co workers, worked 1/2 day (it was day before NYE) and pedaled home. About a block before I hit El Camino Real, I noticed some chain chatter and was trying to trim it out by adjusting the shifters. Remember how I said with friction shifting the operator needs to have a vague sense of what he’s doing? Well unfortunately, friends and neighbors, that wasn’t me. In one fell swoop, I felt the back wheel lock up and heard clanking on the ground. In short, I managed to stuff the rear derailleur into the wheel and it, in response, exploded.

Now it’s back to WGB for some put it back togetherosity, and some advice on technique.